Urban Poverty and Health: Analyisis of Health Challenges and Coping Among Poor Households in Addis Ababa

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Date

2007-07

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Addis Ababa University

Abstract

The study focuses on the qualitative analysis of the dynamic linkage of poverty and health in the urban setting, with a particular reference to Akaki and Teklehaimanot areas in Addis Ababa. The findings strongly indicated that multi dimensional factors of poverty perpetuate illnesses that are communicable and recurrent, deterring livelihood activities and thus progressively intensifying poverty. The bidirectional linkage of poverty and health is found to be entrenched in livelihood, environmental, and psychosocial contexts in which people live and interact. Analysis of these contexts revealed that, insecure source of livelihood caupled with poor living environment significontly influence how people understand health, and thus their responses to health challenges. Although the two areas represent distinct features of inner city and outskirt, the poverty and health challenges faced by poor household were found to be similar in many ways among the two study areas. Poverty seems to affects all members of households, but health outcomes were found to be worse among women and younger children. The study also revealed how poverty shapes aspiration and people's life priorities significantly affecting people's disposition to health promoting activities. The study also attempted to gain insight into how people's coping strategies are shaped by various, household, community and institutional factors. Paar peaple were faund to rationally make such choices, depending on who is sick, what illnesses, ond attitude towards various measures including modern health care. People general.ly tended to be critical towards services provided in government facilities, though such complaints were minimal in Akaki where health care utilization is low. In the analysis of social capital, traditional social networks in which people belong were found to have both positive and negative impact on health promoting behaviour and coping with health challenges. In addition, the impact of non-government organizations on people's predisposition to cope with challenges of health and poverty were also assessed. The findings strongly indicate that most NGO actions have very little impact on enhancing people's capacity to cope with poverty in a sustainable manner. In fact the impacts of some NGO interventions were found to be detrimental to existing traditional coping mechanisms. The recommendations of the study revolve around its conclusion that serious consideration of these dynamic factors is imperative for health policy to be effective in addressing the soaring urban health problems. Key words: Urban, Health, Poverty, Perception, Coping

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Keywords

Urban, Health, Poverty, Perception, Coping

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